Author: mrbankssite

Just over 2 months ago, my son, baby Justus was born. I have been preparing for the day, but nothing could prepare me for what happened. The day he was born, and all of the fear of a tough labor pregnancy, as soon as I saw him, I knew I had changed. My wife’s pregnancy was amazing. She rarely had problems and for the most part it was complete enjoyment. that was, about 30 minutes before the baby was born. Placenta praevia happened before I knew what was going on, and she was rushed out of the delivery room into the operating room. according to her from what the doctors told her, 18 minutes later it was over. It seemed like it was longer than that, but never the less, after that period of time, I was quite exhausted.

My German is ok, but not good enough in high stress situations. The nurse kept reassuring me that everything was ok. it was the few words that she was able to say in English. Of course, I am in the room, I see how the doctors are behaving, you can fake a smile, and words but body language is hard to fake. Something was wrong. Even after he was out and crying, they took him to another room and ran tests on him. I was told later that they were going to rush him to a children’s hospital. The ambulance was already called.

Luckily, the decision was reversed and he was allowed to stay. I was able to hold him once we went to another room. Justus and I were taken out of the room, while Silvia stayed in the OP. I was told to focus on him and the doctors would take care of my wife.

I was told to take off my shirt so Justus and I could cuddle. Skin to skin contact was necessary. He and I laid in bed covered with a blanket until Silvia was brought back into the room. That moment, I was a better man. In that moment, I made a vow to be a better man than my father. I promised that I would be at every event that he partook in, if I could.

I am also glad that I was in Germany and not in America. I was able to Paternity leave. I couldn’t take the whole time off, because I am worried about keeping my job, but I still took off three days of every week for a month. I have enjoyed every month that I have able to be with him and my wife.

Right now, I am on holiday break. Another advantage of working as a teacher is having holiday times off. Where there is a lack of money of having a year round job, there are many days I can actually spend time with the family.

I always say a smile can make a day go from bad to amazing. Justus is now at the time when he is “cooing” and he is smiling. Every thing he does, smile, poop, even cry, I am very happy. I love being a parent. I love being a dad. My life has changed and I am loving every moment of it.

Two of my favorite sport shows, which are also technically competing: Undisputed and First Take, had a debate about which quarterback is better. Everyone gave their opinion, and I will have to say: “I agree.”

I agree with well, almost everyone. Everyone made relevant points and just like a debate where there is no real answer, it was basically a draw because it is hard to compare the two. There are a lot of factors. Because I want to throw my answer in though, I will. I will say who I think is the better quarterback.

Before I get into this, I am not qualified. I was never a great sports athlete, even though I like to claim “what could have been.” I am just a fan that loves the sports and love to watch these debate shows. I love all four of the tv personalities. I love watching the clips, so who will I say is better? I choose Aaron Rodgers. It is not for the reasons that others have presented.

Winning super bowls are great, but to me they are not everything to prove a players greatness. The worst player on the team, will get a ring. While they are valuable to a team, they would not be considered the best. Aaron Rodgers only has one, while Tom Brady has four rings. I do give him credit for guiding his teams to that many Super Bowls, he is a true champion, but there is one factor that really detracts from him being my top pick: Matt Cassel and Patriot Culture.

Why Matt Cassel? Matt Cassel has been in the NFL since 2005 when he was selected in the 7th round by the Patriots. The majority of the time he was the backup quarterback. Matter of fact he didn’t get much playing time while he was at USC either. in 2008, after Tom Brady tore his ACL in the first quarter in the Season Opener, he went on to lead the Patriots to a 10 and 5 record. Knowing his stock had went up and Tom Brady would be healthy the next year, Matt Cassel, took a huge offer to start In Kansas City. Since that one miraculous season in England, he has only had one winning season since.

Why does his stats matter to the career for Tom Brady, it is simple. With the culture that is established in New England from the coach to all of the players, almost any quarterback could have similar success. We can take any quarterback such as Mark Sanchez, Gino Smith, or any other mid card quarterbacks could have had a very decent career if they would have played within the established system set up with the patriots. of course they would not have won the super bowl as often, and would not have put up the same numbers as Tom Brady, but they would have been a playoff bound team.

Aaron Rodgers if would have had the chance to play for the patriots, would probably have beat the Giants both times in the Super Bowl.

So if you include all of the stats of that the four analyst stated on both Undisputed and First take and add in the winning Culture, I feel my argument would put Aaron Rodgers over the edge.

Its is becoming close to the time that President Elect Donald Trump will step into office and build a legacy in politics similar to his in business. It seems that every article that has come out since then, has been nothing but controversial. Trump still seems to try to bully companies, which seems to get a rise out of the companies. It does make it seem that he is looking out for American jobs. I am curious to see if this bullying style will work outside of the political world. Just with my thoughts and everyone else, all we can say is “Wait and see.”

Wait and see how things are once Trump is in office. Will these tactics make companies stay and keep jobs in America, would other countries back down at his bullying or will business go as usual, similar to how things happen in politics.

In the case of GM versus Trump, Trump accused GM of making cars in Mexico and then sending them here into the US and selling them. GM came back and stated that they do make the majority of the Chevy Cruzes in America, and that the hatchback is made in Mexico to fit the market there. Of course a few are brought into America. During the election Trump would throw out comments similar to these and the media would eat them up. When the person that is attacked responds, even if they prove the comment to be weak or not true, once the comment is out there, it is hard to erase it from the minds. While GM does make the cars in America, a sliver of what Trump says is true, which makes people following his style of politics ok with it. Will this hurt GM? we have to wait and see. It did hurt everyone that ran against him during the campaign race.

I don’t care about this style of politics. I am waiting to see, however, if Trump will also try to handle all companies like this, and is this how he will approach other countries. If he attacks all countries like this, I would be quite impressed. Will it change things? I don’t know. If I am not mistake the Democrats also tried something to lowering taxes for products to be made in the US and raising the prices for products to be imported.

This line of thinking goes along with Trumps promises. Now just like with President Obama, I will not hold things against him if Congress goes against his plans. Obama, attempted to try to get things done, but Congress, at moments stepped in a prevented it. So Trump wants to drain the swamp? Will he? Bring Jobs back to America, lets wait and see.

As soon as my baby was born, life came into perspective. Some things became fuzzy, while others became clear. I was ready to become a father. I was ready to turn 30. I was preparing myself to be the best father as I could be. Within a short time, I realized though, that while I will try to be the best daddy possible, I cannot forget to remain a husband. This post is just a reminder to not only do my best to be a great family man, but also to make sure that I keep my relationship with my wife strong as well as keep myself in check.

Throughout my short life, I have been able to observe examples of men going through a midlife crisis. Media, in all forms have displayed how men, at a certain point in time, when they start to reflect on their lives, go find a younger “hot” woman, buy a sports car, and just leaves their family. Usually in the movies and television shows, the women are left devastated. The men were not usually displayed as bad husbands, they just up and decided to leave.

My interpretation of this is that they went from focusing on the family to focusing on themselves. Of course it isn’t bad that the man starts to think about himself and his well being; it was the timing. Everyone should think about themselves at least a little. I will make sure that I do not forget about myself, while I am doing my best to be a great parent. The part that I want to write about the most though, Is to make sure you do not forget about your wife.

On my wife and I anniversary, I wrote her a letter, and in it I requested that we go on a date two weeks before or with in the four weeks of the birth of our son. I made this request in order for us to focus on our relationship. During this date, we would just go to a restaurant that is three houses down, maybe eat our food as fast as possible and get out within 30 min. The point of it though, would just to spend some time just with each other and focus on us. We would probably speak a lot of about baby J and probably think about him every minute, but we are devoting time to us, we would be establishing a routine to make sure that we keep us in focus as well as the family dynamics.

One of my favorite singers, is Bobby Rush, and he has a song called “Wearing it out.” like many blues songs it is in the sexual nature, but the lyrics of why it is important are about ensuring that the relationship stays strong. In one stanza, Bobby mentions a conversation he has had about women leaving their men. The men would state that they didn’t do anything wrong. He reiterated that it may not be what they did, but what they did not do. He also discusses about couples first start dating and they hold hands or cuddle while one is driving, but after years, they drive with both hands on the steering wheels and the passenger are sitting on the side.

The bottom line is that we have to ensure that while we are going through lives, that we do not lose focus on every relationship that we are apart of. The family, the relationship between partners, and then yourself. The family, if you are reading this blog, then that is one part that you will focus on, The relationship, is the step that is often over looked but hopefully you will start to take the time to review your personal relationship with your spouse. Sample questions that you can ask are: When was the last time you went out with your spouse? When and how long was your conversation with your wife that had nothing to do with the family and bills, but about each other. Evaluate and constantly try to find that perfect balance.

There is a rumor that the national anthem song has some racial tones that if it was played in its entirety, it would be considered racist. Of course we sing only the opening verse. There is a third verse to the original song written by Francis Scott Key. Both sides of the issues have been weighed and both sides have given their perspective to why or why it isn’t. At the end of the day, I am not sure, but I do have a couple alternatives that I am ready to vote if we ever consider a replacement.

Two songs that I love are America the beautiful and Proud to be an American. Now, I understand the problem with both of these songs. They are songs, and not Anthems. It is hard for me to think of a quick 1 min part of the song that can fit for an anthem. I love the song in its entirety. When Ray Charles sang America the beautiful at one of the sports event, I was quite blown away. His rendition was quite impressive. Of course others could repeat it and it would still be quite entertaining. Same with proud to be an American. Every time the main line comes on, I immediately stand up, with my hand over my heart. The lyrics clearly state what you should do, and it is hard to resist.

The national Anthem can be sung without music, would America the Beautiful and Proud to be an American still be as good if sung Acapella? I don’t think so, unless you had some harmony with it, but maybe it would nto sound as good. this is one reason to keep it the same.

A reason to change it though, is that I feel that more people will actually know the lyrics to these songs. So many people only move their lips. If I could check, I am willing to bet that more people would have America the Beautiful or Proud to be an American on their mp3 vs the national anthem.

While these are not very compelling arguments, if we did decide to change the national anthem, these two candidates should be at the top of the list. Of course, I am not saying the current song is bad. Based on the arguments, I am not convinced it is racist. Even if it was, and the writer was also racist, it was part of the times. There are a lot of people that were racist, but we can hate the messenger but not the message. Minus the last part, it is still a powerful song.

Colin Kaepernick has started a trend that seems to really be catching on. others are starting to kneel and see things from his perspective. It doesn’t seem that it will ever get as big as the ice bucket challenge or the 22 pushups for troops. For various reasons, kneeling during the national anthem, is seen as problematic, even when people realize that kneeling to the flag is not disrespectful to the troops. I can think of other ways I have felt that the troops have been disrespected, but it didn’t receive as much fanfare.

About 10 years back, people were protesting the War. that is nothing new, it is within our rights as citizen to protest war, if we feel that the war is unjust. Of course, people also saw that it was disrespectful for the troops, even though most of the people had no problems with the troops, but had problem with the war. The troops were forced to do what they were told. In one particular situation though that I found wrong, was when people were protesting the war at a fallen soldier’s funeral. Then I felt that was a bit too much. While the families were mourning the lost of their loved one, some people felt it was the perfect time to protest the war. The media discussed it, but not on such as high note. In the media’s defense, social media was not as strong as now, and didn’t spurn the attention of others like it do now.

A funeral is a time to mourn, I felt it was the wrong time to have talks, especially since the people that were at the funerals really had no say for the war. It was within the people’s rights as citizens, but it definitely felt disrespectful and bad timing. Let;s fast forward to the he sports venue in which athletes are deciding to peacefully protest during the national anthem. Since football is the biggest sport in America, of course there will be more fanfare, however the reaction that these players are getting from the general public is ridiculous.

Why are the reactions so much different is the question I am curious about. the only thing I can think about is race: the players protesting are black while the people generally protesting at the funerals are white. Now I must say also the size of the audience makes it garner more attention, but still the acts are on different levels. The people watching the game, should just be ready to enjoy the game; The kneeling should stand out, but it doesn’t detour the way the game will be played. The people that were protesting at the funeral, added to the hurt and took away from the funeral because they were loud at an event that is usually reserved for almost silence.

The question that is asked to the players, why now? why not last year or a month ago? I do ask that question, but out of curiosity. What was the final straw is the answer that I am looking for. What was the straw that broke the camel’s back? that is what I want to know. Others ask though, in a condescending way. Why does he want to say something now, when he had the chance before? Then they start looking for an alliterative motive, completely forgetting about the cause, the issue. I say forgetting, I should say not caring about the reason.

While I am curious to why now, , I am more focused on the issue itself. Lets focus on the problem and lets try to find a solution. It is the same as looking beyond the messenger, but looking at the message. If someone told you the truth, about life. In order to avoid the problem, people focus on the messenger and his shortcomings. When we do this, we do it as a way to stay away from dealing with a problem, so we want to criticize the person that dropped the truth so heavily on us.

In preparation of baby Justus, I wanted to get something that I have seen so many people wear to carry their baby. I have watching the wraps that people carry their children in. It looked too complicated so I wanted one that was easy to put on and I would feel the child was secure and we chose the Bondelino.

As you can tell from the picture, I have yet to try it with an actually kid; I have only practiced with a stuffed Kermit the frog, but I was able to see how to put on the suit. I know baby J will be moving, but with all of the other forms, this way is very easy. The set up is very simple to put on. I was even given a tip by a friend to how to put the piece on without doing the suggested way as given by the instructions. While I do love to follow the instructions, it is more complicated. That would be for another time. The main point is that is a way I can carry Baby J, keep him close to me, yet I still have both hands free. When I feel more comfortable, I can also put the child on my back like a backpack and carry him. using velcro, and a couple straps is all that I need to be able to carry the kid.

There are also some pockets that I can store things for the child, maybe even my wallet. The bondelino is made of very durable material and I feel that it will be able to last many years even with heavy wear and tear. I give it 2 thumbs up.

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